The Asian Tribune
editor@asiantribune.net
For ages, media was considered the true and ultimate expression of the citizens’ concerns. But, it lost its way somewhere in the middle and steadily became a mouthpiece of the powerful people and the business barons or the politicians.
A class that runs the State, understood the importance of modulating minds through control over media.
Thus emerged a new model where advertisements or revenue was used to keep the newspapers under the check. The media houses that didn’t agree and refused to follow the directives, were targeted in different ways.
This has happened in different parts of the world. In countries with limited democracy, the newspapers are considered an arm of the government, as they push the positive stories, praise the government and openly promote a narrative that supports the ruling party. However, when it comes to people’s issues, they remain silent, due to obvious reasons.
As free media is considered, one of the most powerful tool and is seen as a voice of the citizens, the fight to control the media has taken place in different countries. But, there is another fight, the next level battle is to turn media into a propaganda force for the regimes.
That it should create an opinion that is favourable towards the powerful people who sit on the chair and don’t write the critical stories.
This grand plan has been executed in countries across the world. Take for example, in one case, it started with targeting media houses that were more anti-establishment and over the years, most of them understood the message and began to toe the government line.
The media houses that include TV channels, newspapers and other forms of publications including magazines and online portals, sensed that they could be
raided or shut, and hence, they decided to go with the wind. Otherwise, they were punished and were made to shut the shop. In certain countries, monarchs or the despots didn’t allow the newspapers to have editorial independence.
Once editorial goes, the next step is to appoint own puppets at the top positions in the media industry. The staff has no option but to kowtow as fear of job loss turns man into ‘compromised individual’. Soon it goes to the next level. The paper turns pro-regime and gets biased to such an extent that its staff becomes more loyal than the king.
It not only stops keeping an eye on failure of the ministers or the bureaucracy, avoids doing stories on crime or corruption, and tries to plant stories that are factually incorrect or twisted to present a false but flowery picture of a situation.
The newspapers and media houses first lost their editorial independence. Then, the staff realisesd that reports about corruption and malpractices are no longer allowed to be published. Then, comes the final level—targeting and demonizing critics or those who raise questions. That’s weaponizing the media.
